Akira Toriyama, the creator of 'Dragon Ball', criticizes the lack of originality in today's manga

Akira Toriyama, the famous creator of titles such as ‘Dr. Slump’, ‘Dragon Ball’ or ‘Sand Land’, said in an interview that today’s manga authors are less and less original compared to the authors of the past. The mangaka said this in a 50th anniversary special of the Weekly Shonen Jump magazine, where he explained his vision of the current manga industry together with Takehiko Inoue, author of titles such as ‘Slam Dunk’ or ‘Vagabond’.

Toriyama demands more originality from new mangakas

As part of the Weekly Shonen Jump’s Tezuka Awards, Toriyama argued that “it’s nice that aspiring manga authors are influenced by their favorite authors, but I’d like them to have pride and add a little originality that only they can provide.”

Toriyama added that “while the quality of the work itself is increasing, individuality and pride in one’s work are decreasing. I’d like to run across a manga that makes me think, ‘this author must be nuts!,’ continued the creator of characters such as Goku or Arale.

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According to the famous mangaka, while imitation is a form of homage to established authors, the manga business requires innovation. So much so that Toriyama believes that the new generations of mangaka demonstrate excellent technique, but this does not translate into powerful stories or vignettes that demonstrate creative invention, adding that shonen clichés do not help in this sense and that molds need to be broken.

We will soon get a new adaptation of Akira Toriyama’s work with ‘Sand Land’, a self-contained manga from the early 2000s that returns to the present day as an anime movie in Japan - already released - and an anime series in the West with unreleased material, whose premiere date on Hulu for the United States and Disney+ for the rest of the world has already been confirmed. In addition, Sand Land will also have its own video game, scheduled for release next April.